Galaga
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| Galaga

Back in the '80s your gaming prowess wasn't measured by Gamerscore, achievements or which kind of rare armour your level 99 katana-wielding Orc wears. Oh no. It was all about the high scores. You gained respect by having your initials/three-digit pseudonym glow on the screen in bright red, green and blue pixels.

Sure, games were a lot simpler back then but they certainly weren't any easier to master. Your hand-eye coordination had to be equal to that of a Navy pilot if you were to stand any chance of getting into the top ten.

Galaga is one such game. Think of it as Space Invaders' younger, slightly more attractive cousin – longer legs, big 'uns and a galactic army of kamikaze aliens. Hubba-hubba.

The sequel to Galaxian, this authentically recreated mobile version of Galaga does everything you would expect from a retro conversion – nothing more, nothing less. But that's the whole point. Like Pac-Man and Pong before it, sometimes there's no need to change the formula. Stuff your 5.1 surround sound and optical cables, the mono shrill wail of a dive-bombing Galaga is as piercing and terrifying as it ever was.

The premise is simple. You move your ship from left to right across the bottom of the screen, shooting swarms of suicidal space insects and dodging enemy fire. When you've destroyed everything in sight you move on to the next level and the process repeats, only at a much quicker pace.

And boy does it get quick. After spending the best part of ten years stealthily creeping around tankers and gliding around the Mushroom Kingdom, my thumbs weren't ready for this kind of dexterity workout. There is, however, a risky offer of self-sacrifice that you can use to boost your firepower.

All hail Dual Fighter Mode!

Occasionally the Boss Galagas (identifiable by their green and yellow appearance) will use a tractor beam to try and capture your Fighter. Instinct tells you to avoid such an attack, but permitting you have more than one life left, let your ship be taken over.

Your next Fighter will then come into play. Notice that your captured ship is acting as an escort to the Boss Galaga, flying directly behind it at all times. Now all you have to do is destroy the space alien mid-flight and your captured Fighter will return to the side of your current space slugger. You can now deal double the damage! This strategy will prove invaluable if you're to reach the elusive 50,000 high-score.

Every so often you'll be faced with a Challenging Stage, where 40 Galagas whiz past you in predetermined flight paths. Here the enemies do not fire at you; instead you have to try and blast them all for a hefty point bonus.

There's no denying the addictiveness of Galaga – it's been my faithful cosmic companion on the Supertram for most of this week. But when you think of how many retro compilations there are out there, it's hard to justify paying full price for this game alone. Having said that, Galaga never pretends to be anything more than it actually is – a nostalgic trip back in space and time where all you needed was left, right and shoot. And jolly good fun it is too.

Galaga

Nothing out of this world, but a pixel-perfect recreation of an old classic
Score
Dan Spooner
Dan Spooner
Dan Spooner tells really bad jokes. Really bad. For his first game review the opening line read, "The only backgammon I'm familiar with is cooked and served with eggs!" We made him change it.